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WHO Says Creating Panel to Study 'Designer Babies'

Agencies
December 4, 2018

Geneva, Dec 4: The World Health Organization has said it is creating a panel to study the implications of gene editing after a Chinese scientist controversially claimed to have created the world's first genetically-edited babies.

"It cannot just be done without clear guidelines," the head of the United Nations health agency, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told reporters in Geneva Monday.

"WHO is putting together experts and we are working with member states...to discuss the standards and guidelines that can cover the ethical and social safety issues," added Tedros, a former Ethiopian health minister.

Tedros made the comments after a medical trial, which was led by Chinese scientist He Jiankui, claimed to have successfully altered the DNA of twin girls, whose father is HIV-positive, to prevent them from contracting the virus.

His experiment has prompted widespread condemnation from the scientific community in China and abroad, as well as a harsh backlash from the Chinese government.

Tedros said WHO was in the process of setting up the panel. He did not however characterise the initiative as a direct response to the Chinese trial.

He also declined to speculate on whether WHO could envision a future where some form of gene editing could offer public health benefits.

The panel will start with "a clean sheet," Tedros said. "They can start by asking 'should we even consider this?" The group will include academics as well as WHO and government medical experts, he added.

"We have to be very, very careful...We should not go into gene editing without understanding the unintended consequences." Last week, the Chinese ministry of science and technology stressed its opposition to the gene-editing baby experiment, and demanded a halt to the "scientific activities of relevant personnel".

The Chinese scientist's claims were "shocking and unacceptable" and breached "the bottom line of morality and ethics that the academic community adheres to", vice minister Xu Nanping told state broadcaster CCTV, warning that it may have broken the law.

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News Network
May 1,2020

Washington, May 1: The United States on Thursday recorded 29,625 new coronavirus cases, and 2,035 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The total number of coronavirus cases has reached 1,069,534 and the death toll stands at 63,001, CNN reported.

The novel coronavirus has infected more than 3.2 million people and killed at least 233,000 globally, according to Johns Hopkins University.

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News Network
May 15,2020

May 15: Global deaths linked to the novel coronavirus passed 300,000 on Thursday, while reported cases of the virus are approaching 4.5 million, according to a news agency tally.

About half of the fatalities have been reported by the United States, the United Kingdom and Italy.

The first death linked to the disease was reported on January 10 in Wuhan, China. It took 91 days for the death toll to pass 100,000 and a further 16 days to reach 200,000, according to the Reuters tally of official reports from governments. It took 19 days to go from 200,000 to 300,000 deaths.

By comparison, an estimated 400,000 people die annually from malaria, one of the world’s most deadly infectious diseases.

The United States had reported more than 85,000 deaths from the new coronavirus, while the United Kingdom and Italy have reported over 30,000 fatalities each.

While the current trajectory of COVID-19 falls far short of the 1918 Spanish flu, which infected an estimated 500 million people, killing at least 10% of patients, public health experts worry the available data is underplaying the true impact of the pandemic.

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News Network
March 28,2020

Washington, Mar 27: The United States has seen a record 18,000 new confirmed coronavirus cases and 345 deaths over the past 24 hours, according to a Johns Hopkins University tracker.

There are now 97,028 declared virus cases in the country and there have been 1,475 deaths, Johns Hopkins said.

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